Closings

Severe Weather

On this day: November 4

2011: Broadcast journalist Andy Rooney dies at age 92 in New York City. Rooney was best known for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney," a part of the news program "60 Minutes" from 1978 to 2011. He had been hospitalized on Oct. 25, 2011, after developing postoperative complications from an undisclosed surgery. His death came less than five weeks after his last appearance on "60 Minutes."

2010: Hall of Fame baseball manager George "Sparky" Anderson, who managed the Cincinnati Reds to the 1975 and 1976 championships and then added a third title in 1984 with the Detroit Tigers, dies from complications of dementia at age 76 in Thousand Oaks, California. Anderson, who also played one year for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959, was the first manager to win World Series titles in both the American League and National League.

2008: California voters approve Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage. The amendment was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court in 2010, but was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which dismissed the appeal on June 26, 2013.

2008: U.S. Sen. Barack Obama becomes the first black man to be elected U.S. president, defeating U.S. Sen. John McCain. Obama scored a decisive victory over McCain in both the electoral and popular vote; receiving the largest percentage of the popular vote for a Democrat in nearly a half-century.

2001: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," the first movie based on the best-selling "Harry Potter" books by J.K. Rowling, has its world premiere in London.

1995: Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by Yigal Amir, a radical right-wing Orthodox Jew who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords. Rabin was leaving a rally in Tel Aviv in support of the peace effort when Amir fired three shots with a semi-automatic pistol. Two of the bullets struck Rabin while the third slightly injured Yoram Rubin, one of his bodyguards. Rabin was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died on the operating table less than 40 minutes later. Amir was later tried, found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

1980: Republican Ronald Reagan defeats incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter to win the White House. Reagan, aided by the Iran hostage crisis and a worsening economy at home, won the election in a landslide, receiving the highest number of electoral votes (489) ever won by a non-incumbent presidential candidate. Reagan carried 44 states while Carter won only six states and Washington, D.C.

1979: A group of Iranian militants and students invades the U.S. embassy in Tehran, setting off a hostage crisis. After initially releasing some of the hostages, the militants would hold the remaining 52 Americans for a total of 444 days. Seen here is a student demonstration in Washington, D.C., five days after the initial attack.

1969: Actor Matthew McConaughey is born in Uvalde, Texas. He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his performance in 2013's "Dallas Buyers Club" and is also known for movies such as "Dazed and Confused," "A Time to Kill," "The Wedding Planner," "We Are Marshall," "Failure to Launch" and "Magic Mike," as well as for his Emmy-nominated role on the first season of the HBO crime anthology series "True Detective."

1969: Rapper, producer, actor and entrepreneur Sean Combs is born in Harlem, New York. Combs, better known by his various stage names of Puff Daddy, Diddy and P. Diddy, has recorded such hits as "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down," "I'll Be Missing You" and "It's All About the Benjamins," and appeared in movies including "Monster's Ball," "Made" and "Get Him to the Greek."

1962: In a test of the Nike-Hercules air defense missile, Shot Dominic-Tightrope is successfully detonated 69,000 feet above Johnston Island, an uninhabited atoll southwest of the Hawaii Islands. It would also be the last atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the United States.

1961: Actor Ralph Macchio, best known for his roles in the movies "The Outsiders," "The Karate Kid" and "My Cousin Vinny," is born in Huntington, New York.

1960: Comedian and actress Kathy Griffin, known for her stand-up comedy specials, the sitcom "Suddenly Susan" and the reality TV show "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," is born in Oak Park, Illinois.

1960: At the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in western Tanzania, Jane Goodall observes chimpanzees creating tools, the first-ever such observation in non-human animals.

1956: Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian revolution against the Soviet Union that had begun on October 23. It was the first major threat to Soviet control since the USSR's forces drove out the Nazis at the end of World War II and occupied Eastern Europe. Thousands were killed in the conflict, with many more wounded and nearly a quarter million people fleeing the country before the resistance was put down on Nov. 10.

1955: Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Cy Young, considered one of the greatest pitchers ever to play the game, dies at age 88 in Newcomerstown, Ohio. Young earned 511 wins in his career, the most in major-league history. The Cy Young Award was created one year after his death to honor each season's best National League and American League pitchers.

1952: Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower beats Democrat Adlai Stevenson for the U.S. presidency, ending a string of Democratic wins that stretched back to 1932. Eisenhower carried 39 states to Stevenson's nine, winning the electoral vote 442 to 89.

1952: The United States government establishes the National Security Agency. The NSA is tasked with the global monitoring, collection, decoding, translation and analysis of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, including surveillance of targeted individuals on U.S. soil.

1950: Actress Markie Post, best known for her roles on the TV shows "The Fall Guy," "Night Court" and "Hearts Afire," is born in Palo Alto, California. She's seen here with co-star Harry Anderson in a publicity photo for "Night Court."

1950: Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander, who won 373 games and struck out 2,198 over 20 seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals, dies of heart failure at age 63 in St. Paul, Nebraska. Alexander won a World Series championship with the Cardinals in 1926.

1946: Laura Bush, who served as the 45th first lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009 as the wife of President George W. Bush, is born Laura Lane Welch in Midland, Texas. A teacher and a librarian, she focused on advancing her trademark interests of education and literacy as first lady.

1937: Actress Loretta Swit, best known for her portrayal of Maj. Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on the sitcom "M*A*S*H," is born in Passaic, New Jersey.

1930: Actress Doris Roberts, best known for playing Marie Barone on the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," is born Doris May Green in St. Louis, Missouri. For her work on the series, she was nominated for seven Emmy Awards (and won four times) for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

1924: Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected the first female governor in the United States.

1922: In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The nearly intact tomb would become famous for the wealth of treasure it contained.

1919: Actor Martin Balsam, known for his Oscar-winning role as Arnold Burns in "A Thousand Clowns" and his role as private investigator Milton Arbogast in "Psycho," is born in The Bronx, New York. Balsam also won a Tony Award for his appearance in the 1967 Broadway production of "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running" and appeared in movies such as "On the Waterfront," "12 Angry Men," "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "The Carpetbaggers," "Cape Fear," "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" and "All the President's Men." He died from a sudden stroke at age 76 on Feb. 13, 1996.

1918: Actor Art Carney, best known for playing Ed Norton on the TV sitcom "The Honeymooners," and for winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in 1974's "Harry and Tonto," is born in Mount Vernon, New York. Carney died in his sleep of natural causes at the age of 85 on Nov. 9, 2003.

1916: Journalist Walter Cronkite, best known as anchorman for the "CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, is born in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Cronkite, who died of cerebrovascular disease at age 92 on July 17, 2009, was often cited as "the most trusted man in America."

1879: Cowboy and film star Will Rogers, one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s, is born in Oologah, Indian Territory, in what is now Oklahoma. Rogers died at age 55 in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post, when their small airplane crashed in Alaska.